NACA Sells Out Its Top Spot
In the midst of ongoing legal issues over derogatory domain names with the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities and Campus Activities Magazine, the National Association of Campus Activities launched a new website to accommodate it's growing menu of support tools related to student affairs. The reach of NACA is impressive and over the years they've collected a solid database of content to support student affairs professionals.
However, new sites are not always better. Beyond the confusing navigation, what bothers me the most is NACA sold their homepage top spot to a 3rd party vendor. When I visited the site for the first time, I took a double take because I thought I'd accidently mistyped the web address. Try it out yourself and tell me what you think.
I think the NACA brand is hurt by being smoothered under a massive banner ad that covers the whole page. Unless maybe the two companies formed a parternship or Fantasy World Entertainment bought NACA. Then it would all make sense.
However, new sites are not always better. Beyond the confusing navigation, what bothers me the most is NACA sold their homepage top spot to a 3rd party vendor. When I visited the site for the first time, I took a double take because I thought I'd accidently mistyped the web address. Try it out yourself and tell me what you think.
I think the NACA brand is hurt by being smoothered under a massive banner ad that covers the whole page. Unless maybe the two companies formed a parternship or Fantasy World Entertainment bought NACA. Then it would all make sense.
Overall, the site gives me a headache. Hard to figure out exactly why I'm there once I land.
Posted by: Erik | September 25, 2008 at 04:36 PM
Correct, new does not always mean better. Toughing it out and working through the sometimes illogical links on the page, I'm left with a feeling of loss. As in - I just wasted precious minutes to start back at the beginning.
The ads? Distracting. I'm not sure if NACA has a partnership "officially" with any of the 3rd party vendors, but I sure believe they do from the ad positioning.
I give an A for Effort, B- for User Interface, and A for new opportunities (SAGE,Digital Library,etc.).
Posted by: B. Moore | September 25, 2008 at 11:25 PM
I'm impressed by the amount of content at my fingertips - just wish I could get to it more efficiently.
I'm not happy about the 3rd party vendor ad placement, but I can deal with it since all materials at conferences have a strong focus on ads over brand (At least there aren't pop-ups).
In the end, I'm more frustrated than satisfied when trying to use the site - even the new stuff can't catch my eye (which the homepage encourages you to look for). Perhaps a link to *NEW* stuff (or highlight tabs) would help me locate it since right now it feels like an impossible Where's Waldo mission.
Of course, two weeks from now - or after multiple uses - it may be just as useful as the *New Facebook*.
Posted by: Jennifer Blackwell | September 25, 2008 at 11:39 PM
This is apparently a trend. Our university just redid it's website and it too has a gigantic header photo at the top of most pages.
Posted by: Jennifer Keegin | October 14, 2008 at 06:39 PM